Today my daughter and I had what we call "LLIT CLUB Girly Time". It's our way of having special one one time and our acronym for "little ladies in training".
We baked Princess Tea cookies. I did the mixing and Nyomi, of course did most of the real work: mixing, measuring, pouring, rolling.
We made some Princess Punch too (a sweet little mixture of maraschino cherry juice and flavored sparkling water), complete with colored sugar rimmed punch glasses.
I'm not big on sugar in our home. We hardly keep white sugar or white, refined flours in our cabinet...but for this little treat, I decided to go out of the way.
Here's my daughter, enjoying her cookies. Just a sweetie!
And I constantly remind myself of how quickly these children grow up.
I remind myself that spending time with a child sometimes means exerting that extra energy and putting your best foot forward even when you don't feel like it.
It means planning ahead by shopping for extra ingredients and planning to devote some real time to those time-consuming projects...all just to bring a smile on that face and see her face lit up with joy when she's spent some quality time with mom.
I've also had to learn that just because I'm a stay at home mommy, I don't necessarily "make" time for my kiddos the way I think I automatically do by being at home. Making time doesn't mean just being there. It means working on things together, playing together, laughing together, living together, "being" together. And you can't do any of those things if you're not having fun, and if you don't plan for the fun.
So I've determined that in my journey of natural mothering...I'm going to have lots of fun and enjoy being with my kids - even with a messy house! I won't let dirty dishes keep me from playing a family game...
Not anymore. It's so not worth it.
I've determined that as organized as I wish to be and as dust free as I want my house to be, I want to make memories with my kids even more.
So I've had to weigh my options and let some things go.
The day will come when my house can be immaculately clean. The day will also come when my children will be grown and out of my house.
Carpe diem.
[...] I try to keep it conversational and light, but I ask deep and meaningful questions that make them think about specific actions they had that week (bad or good), and I make them tell me whether it was positive or negative. Then they tell me how they can correct their behavior for next week. I also try to teach them how to sit modestly, be gentle and polite…those kinds of lady-like things. Then we sing songs, pray, and enjoy each other. When we first started this two years ago I really did it up (I had a little more time on my hands with a nursing infant who slept most of the day… read about the early days of LLIT CLub). [...]
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